Fluid energy machine systems, such as electrically driven pump and compressor systems, have many and diverse applications in industry, generally in the process industry, and in particular in the oil and gas industry, for example in conveyor systems, pipelines, refineries, tank farms, etc. The continuous servicing and maintenance of fluid energy machine systems is a fundamental constituent of overall plant operation, in particular with respect to product quality, energy efficiency, plant availability, plant safety, and environmental protection.
Fluid energy machine systems, such as electrically driven pump and compressor systems in particular, encompass but are not limited to the following components: one or more machines doing work such as pumps and/or compressors; gear units, couplings, frames; mechanical and/or electrical speed governing systems; piping and cabling installations; ancillary systems such as, for example, lubricating oil systems, gas seal systems, instrumentation air systems, scavenging air systems, cooling systems, etc.; electric motors for the main drive and other system components; electrical engineering installations such as, for example, switchgear installations, transformers, harmonic filters, reactive-power compensators, etc.; the instrumentation and automation of the plant and the system components incl. software applications, for example for the purpose of operation management, enterprise management, and status monitoring component applications.
At the present time, status monitoring of the aforementioned individual discrete system components constitutes the prior art. Although specific status monitoring systems already exist in a plurality of discrete applications and components, such as in vibration and bearing temperature monitoring for pumps, compressors, gear units or motors for example, the comprehensive monitoring of a fluid energy machine system such as a pump and/or compressor system has not been implemented. Thus, for example, it is not possible with existing status monitoring systems to immediately diagnose whether and to what extent electrical oscillating torques in the motor/drive train, electrical converter defects, such as cell failure for example, or harmonic distortions in the electrical supply network are showing an influence on the process and the affected work machine. Furthermore, it is not possible to make a comparison with historically similar operating data for a fluid energy machine system.
As described above, electrically driven pump or compressor systems, for example, consist of various mechanical, electrical, and automation-related system components. In particular, critical system components such as, for example, frequency converters, electric motors, drive machines, mechanical drives, transformers, and switchgear installations, etc., and also ancillary systems such as, for example, lubricating oil systems, scavenging air systems, cooling systems, etc., and automation systems such as, for example, plant or station automation, are equipped as a rule with discrete status monitoring systems and discrete plant systems. This means that separate status monitoring systems and corresponding alarm systems exist for each individual system component. Alongside this, the servicing and maintenance of the pump or compressor system or their system components is supported by servicing and maintenance software systems such as, for example, operation management systems, enterprise management systems or remote maintenance systems.
Status monitoring of individual components of a fluid energy machine system such as, for example, pump or compressor trains, constitutes the prior art. Thus, it is known that status monitoring of bearings, housings, winding temperatures or machine vibrations, etc. can be carried out. The automation facility for a frequency converter monitors harmonic distortions, for example, but does not compare these with the information from the status monitoring facility for the pump or compressor train or other current or historical process data for the process and the ancillary systems. As a result, for example, the influence of electrically induced oscillating torques in electric motors on equipment train vibrations or similarly other relevant system component conditions can not be analyzed and classified automatically and systematically.